A Ukrainian tank is seen near the eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltsevo February 5, 2015.(Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

A single day of warfare in eastern Ukraine drains the nation’s ailing economy of millions of euros, the Ukrainian president told German media. Poroshenko is asking for money and arms, but so far no European state has agreed to supply weapons to Kiev.

The military crackdown in the eastern regions of Ukraine, which has already claimed the lives of at least 5,300 people, is ruining Ukraine’s economy.

“A day of war costs €5-7 million, infrastructure has been destroyed, and industrial downturn has reached 20 percent,”President Petro Poroshenko acknowledged in an exclusive interview with Germany’s Die Welt media outlet.

Poroshenko accused the Donetsk militia of attacking civilians and claimed that the “increasing number of civilian casualties” in Ukraine’s Volnovakha, Mariupol and Donetsk “should move the [NATO] alliance to provide Ukraine with more support,” which includes delivering modern weapons, Poroshenko said.

At the end of January, European Union finance ministers agreed to loan Ukraine €1.8 billon to stave off a default.

John Kerry, who is on a visit to Kiev, said the US has pledged to allocate $US 1 billion for reforms in Ukraine, and plans to invest another $US 1 billion to help the Ukrainian government.

In fact, Ukraine’s economy is teetering on the verge of default.

The Ukrainian hryvnia has hit a historic low of 24.5 per 1 USD, losing 34 percent of its value. The head of the country’s central bank signaled it can no longer support the national currency with regular interventions, which in turn will create even greater fluctuations.